Thank you to everyone who made it to our Xmas barbeque. It was a very enjoyable night.

We are seeing plenty of ryegrass staggers in calves and cows. Several cows have had injuries from falling onto electric fences, so keep high risk stock in safe spots. We have an effective product to prevent called Fusion Dyad, which binds up the toxins.

The regular rain has caused large numbers of lame cows and bulls. This has caused a flurry of track maintenance work, but mats placed at the shed entrance with copper or zinc sulphate will help harden hooves.

There are currently large numbers of ticks on stock and we are also seeing cases of Theileria. Calves are particularly affected by large numbers of ticks. These may be immature ticks that just look like scabs, especially on their ears or neck. Calves and susceptible herds that have continuous problems with theileria will benefit from treatment with a tickicide such as Flumenil. Check your dogs also. Several flea treatments are also very effective against ticks. If the weather continues on it's current track, this summer could be a higher risk for facial eczema than the previous two seasons. As a general rule, we recommend that zinc protection should start in the water about the end of the first week of January. Where possible, leave insertion of zinc boluses in young stock until early February. This is because zinc boluses work very quickly, and young stock are susceptible to zinc toxicity and can only tolerate three boluses in a season.

We are slowly getting on top of our new EZYvet operating system. We thank everyone for your patience. It has not been good for Lesley's grey hairs!